Sorry for the very show-specific thread, but:
I'm currently working on my high school's annual musical. Last night was our first (and final) dress rehearsal, and we had immense difficulty with the lx/SMgt teams. The desk dropped more cues than I can count, but they tell me that the problem's with our stage manager.
According to the desk (I can't speak from experience - I was in cast, not on cans), the SM has been shockingly indecisive about when cues should go, and has actually inserted/cut a few which weren't expected by the desk ops. I checked the prompt book and the desk book (both of which have all the desk cues), and they're perfectly synchronised. This afternoon will be firing up the desk itself and checking that all the cues in the stack are in the right place.
What can we do to fix this? We can't get another SM to call the show, but if our current one keeps going it'll be a shambles. He's very certain that it's not really his fault this is all happening - he thinks the desk are misinterpreting him. The orchestra are also very unhappy with it; the line from the MD was "It feels like they're waiting for us, but we're waiting for them." Who has the onus to act first? MD or SM?
An extra Q2Q this afternoon for the SM and desk ops is happening, but I don't know what to do about the vague cues... I've been asked to find a solution by the prod team and lx crew and I've drawn a blank.
Any tips?
/Jonas
I'm currently working on my high school's annual musical. Last night was our first (and final) dress rehearsal, and we had immense difficulty with the lx/SMgt teams. The desk dropped more cues than I can count, but they tell me that the problem's with our stage manager.
According to the desk (I can't speak from experience - I was in cast, not on cans), the SM has been shockingly indecisive about when cues should go, and has actually inserted/cut a few which weren't expected by the desk ops. I checked the prompt book and the desk book (both of which have all the desk cues), and they're perfectly synchronised. This afternoon will be firing up the desk itself and checking that all the cues in the stack are in the right place.
What can we do to fix this? We can't get another SM to call the show, but if our current one keeps going it'll be a shambles. He's very certain that it's not really his fault this is all happening - he thinks the desk are misinterpreting him. The orchestra are also very unhappy with it; the line from the MD was "It feels like they're waiting for us, but we're waiting for them." Who has the onus to act first? MD or SM?
An extra Q2Q this afternoon for the SM and desk ops is happening, but I don't know what to do about the vague cues... I've been asked to find a solution by the prod team and lx crew and I've drawn a blank.
Any tips?
/Jonas